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Popularity: British Eng vs American Eng

Hi All,

What do you think British English and American English? Nowadays we are seldomly to use British English in daily life cos almost all english movies are from Hollywood and all of them speak American English, in this trend, shall we give up to learn British English and concentrate on learning American English? Because I think when I learn British English, I can't use it in the world except in UK. Please give me your opinion, thanks.

Re: Popularity: British Eng vs American Eng

Originally Posted by yiuho

Hi All,

What do you think British English and American English? Nowadays we are seldomly to use British English in daily life cos almost all english movies are from Hollywood and all of them speak American English, in this trend, shall we give up to learn British English and concentrate on learning American English? Because I think when I learn British English, I can't use it in the world except in UK. Please give me your opinion, thanks.

Yours,

William

This is total bollocks, unless your only aim is to watch American movies. The English you have used above is neither British nor American. It is simply English (most of it).
If you want to learn English to communicate, any of the major varieties will do.

Re: Popularity: British Eng vs American Eng

You're already mixing your English styles in the post- you use more formal language like seldom (not seldomly) and colloquial abbreviations like cos. There's no need to learn British English if you don't find the need, but, for example, most of the the English learned in the European Union is not American. Language is fluid and changing and most learners use International English, where the distinction between the variants is not very marked or particularly important.

Re: Popularity: British Eng vs American Eng

Originally Posted by Tdol

most of the the English learned in the European Union is not American.

Neither is it British. That is, it's British in the sense that - in Germany for example - we learned what you might most appropriately describe as RP English, the classic Oxford variant. However, it comes only near to that, it's not identical in my opinion -- even though it's meant to be. Yet, as a matter of fact, until today I've never heard any person from Britain or in Britain speaking like that. Even Tony Blair doesn't sound like my teachers back then.

RP, then, equates more to...

most learners use International English

..this. I've really trouble when it comes to identify any differences between RP and 'International English'.

One should keep in mind, though, that most of what you learn, as an English student, doesn't seem to come necessarily from the school or regular courses. My own case certainly is no exception and almost everything of what I've (really) learned (pertaining to English) I've acquired out of school, mainly even after I left school. So, next to traveling, books, music, the Internet, and so on, there's of course the films, you may watch in order to learn and as these are --not always, but often-- of Amercian provenance, I'd still say that more and more, of what non-native English students in the EU learn , actually tends to be more American in syle, than British. Whether one likes it or not.